first pages:Layout 1 - Islamic Tourismislamictourism.com/books/arabic numbers english.pdf · 2010-10-11 · Noble Prophet of the Ummah has said: “I am fond of the Arabs for three

ARABIC NUMERALS

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ARABIC NUMERALS

AUTHOR

PUBLISHER

www.islamictourism.comwww.iraqicharities.org

[email protected]

T.C.P.H. Ltd(technical consulting and publishing house)

Established in 1982

U.K. REGISTRATIONNo 1645411

COPYRIGHT RESERVED TO THE PUBLISHERFIRST EDITION: 1430 H - 2009 CE

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Table of Contents

Table of ContentsStages (Periods) in Shakiry’s LifeDedication Introduction

Chapter One:Mathematics during the times of Arab MuslimsChapter Two:The role of Arab Muslim scientists in developing the final shape of our Arabic Numerals and their usages which have been wide in all corners of the globe

The use of numbers across eras1. The Ancient Egyptian Numerical System2. Numbers in Mesopotamia (The Land between two rivers)3. Numbers in China4. The Greek Numerical System5. Roman Numerical System6. Indian Numbers

The Use of Numbers among the Arab Muslims• How did Arabs make contacts with other civilizations• What is the story of Arabic Numerals?• What is the story of the (zero) for the Muslims?

Chapter Three: Globalization and Numbers

1. In Economics2. In Mathematics3. In Electronics4. Chemistry and Sciences5. Arabic Numerals6. The Zero7. Literature and History8. The Adoption of Arabic Numerals

Chapter Four: The Leaders who made the change and developed civilizations across history

• The Language that has no speakers or writers will head towards extinction

Chapter Five: The Development of our Arabic Numbers in the Era of computers

• Recommendations of the Study• Finally, the time is right to reclaim Arabic Numerals for the nation

56915

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2729293132343739

42434445

495151515151515151

5356

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Arabic Numerals66

1931 Born in Iraq and grew up in the Holy City of Najaf, attending thetraditional religious schools.

1942 He start his practical life under the auspices of his brother Jawadal-Shakiry and during that time he continued to educate himself.

1947-1948 Settled in Lebanon for twenty months, that created opportunitiesand Prospects for his life.

1949 Entered Business & the Industry worlds, he established Dijla ShoeMfg Company with his brothers Jawad and Hussain al-Shakiry.

1955 Travelled to Germany to participate in a special training course onthe chemistry and technology of rubber; he also participated insome of the European specialized exhibitions.

1958 Participated in a course in Svit Factories for Shoe and RubberManufacturing (Formerly named Bata) in Czechoslovakia; hetravelled from there to Germany, France & Italy.

1959 Stayed in Frankfurt for ten months, he had enlisted himself ondifferent courses on production management, cost calculation ofhourly productivity and computer systems using the giant IBM,then he joined Berlet School in Frankfurt to learn the Germanlanguage.

1962 He took part in a higher management study course in Baghdad,under the supervision of Dr. Hassan Salman, Head of theIndustrial Development Department.

1963-1964 He bought DAMA GmbH Company in Germany which he ran, thecompany specialized in marketing and servicing “Maytag”, Americanwashing machines that used coins which was new to Europe.

1965 Attended & participated in the conference of the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.

1966 Established a new company called Rafid Shoe Mfg Co WLL. Healso inaugurated twenty branches for selling their products, thenhe founded three more companies:- Aldhia’a Polymers Product Mfg. Co WLL for Glues and

Varnishes. - United Polymers Products Co WLL.- At-Timsah Straps & Belts Mfg Co. WLL.The number of the workers and staff exceeded 600.

1980 Moved to United Kingdom & settled until the present.

Stages (Periods) in Shakiry’s Life

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Stages (Periods) in Shakiry’s Life

1983 He established a company called T.C.P.H Ltd for Publishing &Distribution which issued:- AlHidhaa international magazine, for Leather & Shoes. - Alridaa international magazine, for Textile and Clothing.He Founded Rafid shoe Ltd.He managed to register a patent in the method of fast shoe making(instant made to measure shoes).

1986 Entered a partnership with a biscuit company in Morocco, andthen he became the sole owner of it.

1999 Publish his first book “Financial Worship in Islam”

2001 He issued the third magazine, a specialized magazine namedIslamic Tourism magazine, which is still issued in five languages(Arabic, English, French, Spanish and German), and theirwebsites: www.islamictourism.com

2002 Published his second book entitled “The Humanitarian Jihad inIslam”

2005 Established al-Shakiry Charity for Social Interdependence in Iraqwhich cares for more than 600 orphans.

He also Established Iraqi Charities Forum which includes tens ofregistered charities inside and outside Iraq, and the website: www. iraqicharities.org

2007 - Published his third book Tourism Prospects which included allhis articles in Islamic tourism magazines until issue 27. - Until 2008, he continues to supply the magazine with articles

called 'Tourism prospects' for each issue.- Also he enriched the Iraqi Charities Forum website with his

weekly letters which handled different subjects, from articles ofacademic base to set up, manage and run charities and finallyhow to promote the philanthropy and giving culture.

- Participated in a lot of discussion in academic and scientificconferences as well as in a variety of exhibitions.

2008 - Published his fourth book: Islamic Tourism Prospects for WorldPeace, in Arabic.- Published his fourth book: Islamic Tourism Prospects for WorldPeace, in English.

He is due to publish one book: Industrial Horizons.@

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No two people disagree over stressing the fact that civilization grew out ofMesopotamia and the surrounding expanses of land. Mankind found itsdeveloped and multifaceted status, with its urban and social entities, aroundthe area known today as the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia. From thisnoble land emanated the Muhammadan light to illuminate the regions of theworld with its glow, knowledge and a permanence that is reminiscent of thepermanence of solar eternity, reckoning and judgment. There is no doubtthat a race, which gives rise to a civilization from which a number ofcivilizations originate, must possess both a communicative language and adescriptive language in order to exist. Therefore, the numerical language was,in our own estimation, the first language used by mankind because itdescribes and embodies things. Moreover, the human body has so many partsthat are amenable to being counted, such as fingers, ribs, legs and otherbodily parts, as to set the stage for ascertaining and learning the numericallanguage in order to describe things in terms of their numbers rather thanessence. That furnishes us with the conclusion that numbers enjoy thegreatest potential for survival, evolution and openness toward knowledge,the sciences, and continued existence till the Day of Judgment. Even theuniverse, in which we exist, with all the moons and suns that it contains, isdescribed by Allah as “following a reckoning”.

Even in the descriptions given by the One and Only Creator to existence, life,death and monotheism, we observe numbers with overlapping vigour whenthey denote computational descriptions and evaluative descriptions. WhenAllah addresses Adam and Eve in His Noble Book, He addresses them using anumerical language. And when He asks the angels to provide the names of thenew creation, He addresses them using a numerical description. We do notengage in allegorical hyperbole when we say that He addresses them at thebeginning of creation with a numerical description and in Arabic since theNoble Prophet of the Ummah has said: “I am fond of the Arabs for threereasons: because I am an Arab, and because the Qur’an is in Arabic, and becauseArabic is the language of the inhabitants of Paradise”. In other words,addressing Adam and Eve in Arabic involved the descriptive capacity ofnumbers " but do not go near this tree," The Elevated Places 19. That is also thecase when He addresses Satan (“Lo! thou art of those reprieved”) "He said:

Dedication

Our Arabic Numbers in the Arena of Civilizations

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Surely you are of the respited ones." The Elevated Places 15; and when Headdresses the angels, they reply (“we have no knowledge but that which Thouhast taught us”) "They said: Glory be to Thee! we have no knowledge, but thatwhich Thou hast taught us; surely Thou art the knowing, the wise." The Cow 32;and when He describes the Heavens and the earth, He describes them usingdescriptive numbers. However, when He talks about the existence and theuniverse He pinpoints six days; that is using an existential number.

The purpose of this cursory sketch is to say that the rhetorical character of theArabic language consists of a numerical descriptive idiom that sets it apart inessence from all other languages, modern and past ones. You do not findsingular, dual, and plural forms except in the Arabic language. All otherlanguages use only the singular and the plural forms. Therefore, as creationstarted in this region, which we identified above, it found, before it set up thecity-state and the state and the appearance of Sargon the Akkadian who unitedthe region and founded the first empire in history, that numbers constitute thereal language that should dominate. Perhaps civilizations and the preciousthings that they left at the Louvre Museum in France provide the best evidenceof that. By merely looking at a piece left over from the Mesopotamiancivilization we find that it bears inscriptions and that numbers figure asmainstays of these inscriptions; whereas one rarely finds writings or numberson the precious items of other, posterior civilizations. Consequently, thenumerical language is not a modern legacy, but rather a legacy that dates backto the beginning of the Godly creation. Allah has taught this Godly legacy to Hiscreation so that they would discover through this legacy other things that wouldconsolidate their presence on, and connection with, the earth and with life. Atthe beginning of creation, when a man possesses money, land or beasts, hisdescription of his possessions was numerical in terms of their numbers and inthe way that he deemed appropriate at the time. In addition, throughout thedescriptive composition of its verses, the Noble Book is replete with numbers,especially when we set out in company with the Noble Book to delve into therumbling depths of the unseen and the successive nations as well as to identifythe properties of judgment, punishment, good deeds and wrongdoing.

Talking about numbers in this manner is intended to identify thecivilizations that dealt with numbers and turned them into a reality that canbe attributed to them, thus countering an obscurity borne out of the passageof time. This leads us to the conclusion that the West and some parts of theEast were not at the beginning of civilizations concerned with numbers.Rather, whatever they passed on (with respect to numbers) was inheritedfrom other civilizations which infiltrated them through expansion orrecurring wars. As such, India and the West did not exist at the beginning of

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Dedication

creation. Human existence with all its aspects was at the beginning ofcreation restricted to the area between the Arabian Peninsula andMesopotamia as well as along the banks of the two rivers (the Euphrates andthe Tigris) whose geographic scope extended at the time to Egypt to the west,and northwards to what is nowadays modern Turkey and some parts ofGreece where Greek civilization grew. Consequently, if archeologicalresearch is to plumb the depths of this question and subject matter, it willfind that Greek civilization is an acquired civilization and not a developedlegacy like the civilizations that were born in the regions that we haveidentified earlier. This leads us to a conclusion professing that the findings ofMr Abdul Sahib al-Shakiry in his book entitled “Our Arabic Numbers” arecorrect, accurate and beyond a shadow of a doubt.

There is no doubt that “Our Arabic Numbers,” which I consider to be a valuablework, will be an important work in both the near and distant future. It portrayed,beautifully, in an accessible linguistic context, and by using valuable investigativeproofs, the scientific evolution which accompanied the path of Arabs andMuslims. The scientific content of the first two chapters, which touched onArabian achievements in mathematics and the effect of numbers on othersciences, was perhaps a notion that is necessary for Arab and Muslimresearchers, especially at a time that is replete with following in the footsteps ofall that which is Western, and rejecting all that which is Arab and Islamic. Amalcontent might raise an objection to us, saying: “What is the use of the pastand talking about it?” In fact, nations that have no history can never rise up andremain mired in backwardness. Conceivably, no scientific research can developwithout referring to the historical foundations of sciences. This clear and modestnarrative, expounded by Mr Shakiry opened up before us many vistas forproving the Arab and Islamic origins of numbers and the developed andprogressive status of the Arabs and Muslims at the time, whereas other nationswere completely mired in backwardness. The greater advantage that I found inthe author’s discourse, and which is rightly considered a new numericalphilosophy, lies in his discussion of the role of the Abbasid state in the growth ofsciences, especially in inventing the clock. When mathematicians fixed thedivisions of the clock at the time, they took into account that time starts fromzero and, in the light of this, time was divided into hours, minutes and seconds.Perhaps, this scientific breakthrough in mathematics, which was preceded by abreakthrough in the field of numbers and their uses, paved the way for theemergence of many sciences that had a momentous impact on the developmentof other sciences.

The fact is that Arabic is a numerical, mathematical language. The prosodicscales of classical Arabic poetry are indeed an example of this fact, if we take into



consideration that these scales of classical Arabic poetry depend on movementand stasis, known nowadays as binary numbers composed of 0 and 1.Accordingly, and irrespective of the existence of multiple theories, we tendtowards the opinion of the researcher, Mr. Shakiry, that the zero is of Araborigin and was derived from language before its uses effected a change in theconcepts of engineering, physics, chemistry, and other sciences, whether thosesciences in which the Arabs and Muslims showed creativity or those in whichthey never showed any creativity. The findings of Mr. Abdul Sahib al-Shakiryare not a matter of contention among researchers. As they persist in verifyingtheir thesis, even the proponents of the Indian (origin of the) zero finally standbewildered at a crossroads: they say that there are also theories that prove theArab origins of the zero which were passed on (to Europe) through the Arabstate in Andalusia. Some go beyond that and say that the zero entered with theFatimid occupation of Central Europe.

The researcher, Mr. Abdul Sahib al-Shakiry has roamed the terrain of thewriting of letters and how to deal with them, from the standpoint of theChinese, Phoenician, Indian, Western, Eastern and other languages which havecivilizations. These civilizations played a role in firming up and developingsciences despite the fact that most of them were borrowed and non-inherited, aswe have described them. Accordingly, al-Shakiry was able, in a competentmathematical investigative spirit, to explain the forms and circumstances withinwhich numbers came into being, and the particulars of writing their forms. Inhis findings, he arrived at the Arab origins of numbers, and this is a purelylogical, mathematical conclusion that should be resorted to in any research inthis field. Through this finding, he linked the importance of growth in themodern sciences to numbers, and the impact of this growth on the manner inwhich an Arab scientific system can be built. This system facilitates entering thestage of scientific development by means of numbers and their computerizedprocessing. This opinion is on the mark and it is necessary to set out tounderstand this reality.

The call made by the researcher with respect to the importance of the use of theArabic numbers (0; 1; 2; 3; etc) is a genuine call that is clearly concerned withthe development of the sciences and their contributions. This is something that,as the researcher says, can only be achieved if they were adopted by all Arab andIslamic states so as to put the record straight and that we act to develop andverify it. This will be an opportunity to redeem and make amends for theillustrious scientific Arab and Islamic names, such as Khawarizmi, Bayruni andothers, whose heritage was stolen and was attributed to names that would havehad no role or meaning had it not been for their theft of the rights of those(Arab and Islamic scientists).

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It is not surprising that this research comes from our Brother Mr. Abdul Sahibal-Shakiry because he had previously supplied the Arab library with researchworks and magazines dealing with topics that no one else before him had paidattention to. I especially would like to mention the al-Hidha’ (‘The Shoe’)magazine, the al-Rida’ (‘The Attire’) magazine, and Islamic Tourism magazine(‘ITM’). Without him, the Western reader would have never had a chance to getto know the contributions of the Arabs and Muslims (in these fields); as he wasextremely keen to publish these publications in both Arabic and English.Moreover, he has since been persistent in publishing his output in English andother modern European languages, in addition to Arabic, so that Westernsociety would be able to find out about the research output of Arabs andMuslims. May Allah bless you. I will be awaiting further works.

Dr. Haitham Ghalib al-NahiLondon

21 December 2008

Dedication


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My questions about and interests in Arabic Numerals have been growing dailysince the beginning of the 1980s, when I was publishing the magazines ‘AlHithaa’ (Shoes), and ‘Ar Ridaa’ (Clothes), which were published bilingually inEnglish and Arabic. And because the two magazines were focussed onprofessional, scientific and economic affairs, since they were both professionalmagazines, such scientific issues would naturally require tables and numbers.With every issue of the two magazines, I used to feel upset and grieved as Ididn’t feel there was a need or justification to use two kinds of numbers,especially when both sets of numbers are considered to be Arabic. In addition,the Oriental numerals are difficult to read or write and the possibility of makingmistakes in their usage is greater than others. For this reason, I thought usingtwo types of numbers was both time-consuming and effort-wasting, as well asimpeding artistic, scientific and discourse excellence. There are also manyjustifications in design, presentation and others which give our Arabic numeralsmany advantages over their oriental rivals.

Over the years, my desire and tendency towards using our Arabic numeralshas increased. Arabic numerals, which are Arabic in origin but western andinternational by usage, are used in Arabic North African countries and mostcountries of the world, and they are even called Arabic Numerals. On theother hand, the other oriental numerals are Indian by origin. (For simplicity,I am going to use the term ‘our Arabic Numerals’ for what is widely knownas ‘Arabic Numerals’ while referring to the other set of numbers as ‘OrientalNumerals’.

After this, I began to insist on using the term ‘our Arabic Numerals’ andencourage workers who were working on publishing the two magazines to usethem. When we bought our computers, I requested staff to use our ArabicNumerals instead of Oriental Numerals, but the software of our computers thenaccepted only Oriental Numerals. The transformation into Arabic Numeralswas a complex issue that would have taken a long time as every number had tobe changed manually and the result could be a mixture of the two types ofnumerals in Arabic texts. The urge to change the numerals remained with meevery time I was engaged in editing or publishing a book or a magazine.

When I published my book, ‘Financial Worships in Islam’, my insistence wasclear on the need to achieve what I believe to be right, that is writing all thenumbers in the book, even the numbers of the Quraanic verses, in Arabic

Introduction

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Numerals. I was in Morocco at the time, and it was obvious to me that the futurewas for our Arabic Numerals.

Here I am again attempting to publish this book after a delay of a number ofyears due to my other engagements with publishing the Islamic TourismMagazine and establishing a website for it.

The idea of writing a book about Arabic Numerals has been brewing since theearly nineties, and ever since I have been looking for sources that might help meto achieve this study. I had to subscribe to the British National Library which isthe biggest advanced library in London and I started talking with friends aboutthe subject of this book. Then I was reunited with a childhood friend Mr AbdulLateef Al Milih, the former member of the Baghdadi Heritage Association, whodied before achieving his wish to see this book published. May God bless hissoul. I spoke to him about the Arabic Numerals and he said he would search theshelves of Iraqi libraries for sources and ‘there must be some answers for allyour questions’ and how the numerals developed, where they came from andhow. He kept his promise and supplied me with a valuable study which I willquote in this book – a study that has really become an important pillar in thisbook. A thousand thanks to Abdul Lateef Al Milih for his valuable contributionto this book.

Now, after all the elements of this book were completed, such as historicalresearch, justifications for change, technological and scientific basics, and aftergiving examples of other nations’ experiences and their leaderships intorevolutionary changes in scientific, and cultural fields as well as reconstructionand all that is related to the development of human beings and humanity, wemust call upon all governments of our Arab countries, whose media andcultural establishments are still in two minds between Oriental Numerals andour Arabic Numerals which has now been accepted by 95% of countries of theworld. We say to them that the time is now right for taking quick revolutionarybut scientific steps in order to change the numbers in educational syllabi as wellas in media and publishing. This way we will conform to countries of the worldand the requirements of modern technology within the computer andcommunication revolution…

It is time for Arab countries to initiate a change and unify numbers across ourArab nation. This can be done through calling for the replacement of OrientalNumerals with our Arabic Numerals in all Arab countries which still useOriental Numerals. They, our Arabic Numerals, are both original andinternationally used. This must be executed in a scientific and organized way aswas the case with the European Union when it unified the currencies of 25

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countries and introduced a single currency for all of them, the Euro. Isreclaiming what was taken from us, which is the numerals that are called afterour name, Arabic numerals, and putting them in place of Oriental Numerals,which no longer conform to modern technology and science, an impossible taskto implement? Is it really that complex or difficult a task? The answer isdefinitely NO. It is an easy task, in fact very easy after all the requiredprogrammes and software have been developed and modern computers cannow handle them with no difficulty. Computer operators can now press abutton and all numbers can change within the Arabic text or all other textsprinted on the computer, from one type to another, no matter what shapes ortypes they take. Let us embark into the study of this book, (Arabic Numerals)…

At the end of my introduction, this, I find it a must for me to put my thanks andgratitude to all people who helped me in the research, review and classificationof the texts of this book and its translation. Besides, my thanks to all brothersand sisters who participated in the typesetting, printing and accomplishing ofthis work.

God is the ultimate guarantor of success.

Introduction


Chapter One

Mathematics during the times of Arab Muslims

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Mathematics

It is a well-known fact that Arab Muslims based their knowledge ofmathematics on the sciences they received from the Greeks and the Indians. Butthey also developed these sciences and advanced them many steps forward,until many distinguished scientists in mathematics appeared in the Orient suchas Al Khawarizmi (born AD 844), Thabit Bin Qurra (born AD 901), Al Bettani(born AD 926), Al Khazin Al Basri (born circa AD 960), and Omar Bin IbrahimAl Khayyam (born AD 1132). Also, in the Islamic West (North Africa), therewas Muslima Al Majreeti (born AD 1007) who was nicknamed the ‘Imam ofmathematicians in the Arab Andalus’ (Andalusia in Spain where the Moorsruled). Many of his students also became famous mathematicians such as IbnAs-Samh (born AD 1034), Ibn As-Saffar, Al Karamani and others.

The Muslims advanced arithmetic by huge steps, as they added to the Greeks’information a great deal of theories which Europe didn’t previously know. Theyalso taught the Europeans the system of Indian numerals, which represented acomprehensive revolution in the science of arithmetic. It is clear to us that thisnumerical system has facilitated arithmetic and accounting transactions if weare to compare it to the Roman numerical system. Within the new numericalsystem which Europe acquired from the Arabs, the value of number ‘1’ forexample, changes depending on its position in the figure, whether it is in thedecimal, units, tenth, hundredth, thousandth or the millionth mathematicalposition. However, the value of the number in the Roman numeric systemdoesn’t change when its mathematical position changes. The number ‘5’, forexample, remains as ‘five’ (in value) and cannot mean ‘50’ or ‘500’, or ‘5000’.The same goes if we want to write the number ‘27’ in the Latin Numerals, whichEurope used in the Middle Ages and knew no other numerals. It will be writtenas follows: XXV11. We can imagine the extent of complication this adds to theaccounting and mathematical process such as addition, subtraction, divisionand multiplication if we use the Roman numerical system, let alone if we use itfor large figures expressed in thousands and millions.

The new numerals used in the West are not a western invention. It is likely thatit was Indian as the Arabs indicated, and as it is clear from the way they arewritten, from left to right. The credit goes to the Arabs who introduced this newsystem to Europe and relieved the Europeans of the complications of the oldRoman numerical system. They facilitated the accounting and arithmeticprocess and helped the science of mathematics to progress.

Al Bairooni wrote an important book about numbers and their ratios – hecalled it ‘Rashikat Al Hind’ or ‘Indian Numerals’. Al Ya’aqoobi also explained



in his book ‘The History’ the new numerical system which the Arabs learnedfrom the Indians. He said: “…They put nine Indian digits, of which allarithmetic operations are derived from, but without fully knowing what theyrepresent. These are ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)…’ The first set was ‘one, ten, anda hundred’. They also represent one thousand, one hundred thousand and onethousand thousand…. On this method of calculation, the nine digits alsowork upwards. The category of ‘one’, for example, is distinct from the ‘ten’,and the category of ten is distinct from the hundred, and so on for everycategory. If any category doesn’t have a digit, a ‘zero’ should be in its place.The ‘zero’ should be a circle shape ‘0’”.

We can see from the above that Al Ya’aqoobi refers to a new arithmeticsymbol which is ‘zero’ which is one of the most important principles inmathematics that the human mind has discovered. The West didn’t know theusage of the ‘zero’ until the Arabs introduced it in the 12th century A.D. Eventhe historian Eyre said that the idea of ‘zero’ was one of the great gifts that theMuslims have given to Western Europe. The Arabs used the word ‘zero’(meaning zephirum in Latin or Sifr in Arabic), to refer to ‘nothing’, since theJahili era (‘jahili’ is an Arabic word derived form the root ‘jahal’ which means‘ignorance’ in Arabic, and hence the phrase literally means ‘the era ofignorance’ which is the period that preceded Islam. It’s a term coined by theProphet Muhammed). The following verse which came within a whole poemby the Arab poet Hatim Al Taei has the word ‘zero’ in it.

Meaning: Inevitably, I will leave this world. It will be clear then, that what I hadspent had been of no harm to me, while my hands would be empty of what I hadstriven hard to save (the poet literally used the word ‘zero’ in the sentence ‘myhands will have zero money on them of the money I was so careful not tospend’), which actually means: (I would get no benefit from saving money).

During the 8th century A.D. the Muslims used ‘zero’ in arithmetic and theydrew it in a circle shape as Ya’aqoobi mentioned previously.

Muhammed Bin Ahmed also mentioned in his book (Mafateeh ul Uloom or‘The Keys of Sciences’), that if there is no number indicated in the arithmeticprocess, we should use a ‘small circle’ in order to make the set of numbers even.Al Khawarizmi also explained how to use the new numbers, including zero, ina study that was translated by the Europeans into Latin in the first quarter of the12th century A.D. under the name: ‘Algoritmi de Numero Indorum’ whichtranslates as ‘Al Khawarizmi on Indian Numerals’. This means the European

22 Arabic Numerals

Chapter 1

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23

word ‘Chiffre’ was derived from the Arabic Sifr = zero, and it also means‘nothing or valueless’. Martin Luther used this word to describe the weakness ofthe bishops in front of the Pope. He described them as ‘zeros’… In the 16thcentury A.D. the European expression ‘chiffre’ or ‘code’ was used to signifyvague writing, while the word ‘zero’ was used to mean ‘nothing’…

Western Europe received the new numerical system that is associated with AlKhawarizmi’s name which had soon been adjusted in Latin to ‘Algoritmi’ thenAlgorismus then abbreviated to Augurim. The latter expression became the nameof a new science which is the new decimal numbers. This shows that westernershave actually learned modern arithmetic from the former Al Khawarizmi bookand other books derived from his book such as Carmen de Algorisme, written byAlexandre De Villa and Algorismus Vulgaris by John of Halifax in AD 1250. Bothof these books were based on the book of Muhammed Bin Musa Al Khawarizmiin arithmetic and both of them remained authoritative referral sources forlearning arithmetic in Western Europe for centuries.

The word Algorithm, derived from AL Khawarizmi’s name, is still used in theEnglish language today to refer to the given method of problem solving.

The Arab’s service to Europe is not limited to arithmetic in the sphere ofmathematics, but it extended to other sciences, at the top of which was Algebra,which has kept its Arabic name in all European languages (Algebra or Algebre),after the Europeans learned it from the Arabs. If some researchers tend to believethat Arabs were not those who laid the bases for the science of Algebra, and if theythink that the rules of the science were known since the days of Diophantus, aGreek scientist who lived in the third century A.D., it is sufficient pride for theArabs to have established the origins of Algebra science and made advances in itand transformed it completely. They have turned it into a real and completescience. They then applied it to engineering. The Arabs were so dedicated toalgebra that the caliph Al Ma’amoon commissioned Muhammed Bin Musa AlKhawarizmi to write a book on this science. It’s the book that was translated intoLatin by Robert of Chester in the year AD 1145. By this achievement, the Arabshad presented Europe with a new science as this book remained in use inEuropean schools and universities until the 16th century A.D.

One of the Arab scientists who worked and wrote in Algebra was Abu BakirMuhammed Bin Al Karkhi who died circa AD 1019-1020. Ibn Al Karkhis isregarded as one of the most senior scientists that Baghdad witnessed in the era ofAbi Ghalib Muhammed Bin Khalaf, who was nicknamed ‘Fakhr ul Mulk’ or ThePride of the Crown and who was a minister during the era of Baha uddeen Idhd



Ad Dawla Bin Buwayh. Al Karkhi wrote two books “Al Fakhri Fi Algebr Wa AlMuqabela” or The Pride in Algebra and Comparison and “Al Kafi Fil Hisab” orThe Sufficient in Arithmetic. The first book is more important, and it comessecond in importance to the book written in the science of Algebra by Omar BinIbrahim Al Khayyam (AD 1045-1123).

As for geometry and trigonometry, the Arabs translated the book of Euclides ingeometry and it is the same translation that the European used to translate intoLatin in the 12th century A.D. Also, Al Koosi translated the book of AlMu’atayat or The Elements by Euclides. It is a book that deals with the geometryof the globular shapes in the year AD 1274. The Arabs didn’t just limit theirbooks to the knowledge they inherited from the Greeks in geometry andtrigonometry, but they renewed it and included new valuable additions whichwere not known before them. They were the first to introduce the tangent intothe science of trigonometry calculation. This step was very important inmathematics and it was regarded by mathematical scientists as a seriousscientific revolution. The Arabs used sines and cosines in place of hypotenuse,and solved cubic equations. They also progressed deeply into the studies of thecones. All this new information was no doubt instrumental in makingmathematical sciences have such an important role in life.

Among the most prominent Arab Muslim scientists who worked and wrote ingeometry, trigonometry and calculus were Al Khawarizmi, Thabit Bin Qurra, AlBattani, Al Khazin Al Basri, Ibn AL Haytham, and Al Bairooni. Abu Abdulla AlBattani (AD 850-939), who is known among Europeans as Albategnus,advanced the science of trigonometry calculus to a great extent, and furtherthan it was during the days of Euclid of Alexandria. He replaced triangles withsquares in equation solving and the angle sine by the arc. He was also thescientist who originated the science of trigonometric calculation by ratio in theway that is in use today. As for Ibn Al Haytham’s essay in trigonometry calculus,it is called ‘The shape of Beni Musa’. He explains the reason for naming it likethis by saying ‘The shapes that Beni Musa’ introduced using the proofs found inthe book of Cones by Polonius, the famous Greek astrologist andmathematician, was the last shape in their introductions. As for Al Bairooni, hewrote an essay on how to define the chord in a circle. Most of these Arabicbooks were translated by the Europeans into Latin since the 12th century A.D.I would like to mention one person in particular Adelard of Bath, whotranslated ‘The Tables of Trigonometry Calculus’ by Al Khawarizmi in the yearAD 1162. and also translated other trigonometry books.

The knowledge of Arabic in the science of mechanics is also great and wide, and,as a proof of that, we can see the remains of their machines and their description

24 Arabic Numerals

Chapter 1


25

of these machines in the books they left. The Arabs were also engaged in thetranslation of the Greek writings, and this engagement continued until the 13thcentury A.D. when Al Toosi translated the book of ‘The Moving Ball’ byUtolycus. But the Arabs contributed more to this knowledge, and someEuropean scientists believe the Arabs invented the clock’s pendulum and usedthe pendulum in measuring time. This means the Arabs knew the heavy clocks,which are different from water clocks as is clear in the description of the clockin the Amawi Mosque in Damascus which can be found in some referralsources.

The conclusion is that Arabs were very advanced in mathematics and Europebenefited from them greatly in this field. Any close reader of any of the Arabs’books in mathematics will be astonished at the advancement of Arabs and thewide knowledge they had attained and the accuracy of their research. AlKhawarizmi, for example, was involved in explaining the equations of two andthree dimensions to a great extent and his reasoning was very scientific and hisexplanation was copious. He also looked into the roots and the way the area ofdifferent shapes, such as triangles, squares, circles and rhombi is calculated. Hethen moved on to complicated matters and defined the way to solve them in askilful and accurate way that is truly fascinating.



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The role of Arab Muslim scientists in developing the final shape of our

Arabic Numerals and their usages which have been wide in all corners of the globe


29

The use of Arabic Numerals has become one of the topics where there is a needto shed some light on the role of Arab Muslim scientists in developing thesenumerals and the influence they left on human civilization.

There are questions raised sometimes among intellectuals about the shape ofArabic Numerals. Are they the oriental current numbers (shown below)?

Or are they the Arabic Numerals which are used in most countries of the worldas well as some of the Arab countries of North Africa (shown below)?1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

The reason for this question leads us to a study that makes clear the role of theArabs in using the numerals and to emphasize the civilized role of the ArabMuslims in the development of our Arabic Numerals.

For this purpose, it is important to divide this study into the following sections.

• The use of numbers across eras• The Arab’s use of numbers • The study’s recommendations

The use of numbers across eras

The Arab Islamic civilization, like any other civilization, was influenced byprevious civilizations and it has influenced subsequent civilizations. The Arabsacknowledge the merit of previous civilizations and their influence on them.Therefore, the Arabic Islamic civilization was not born out of mere chance orwithout advanced preparation. Mathematics and the transfer of arithmetic, andconsequently the numbers in particular, have left a clear impact on ArabicIslamic civilization. I shall go through the shapes and forms of these numbersand how they changed over the years, right from the ancient times of theEgyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Romans and Indians.

1- The Ancient Egyptian Numerical System

For over 5000 years, the ancient Egyptians used symbols for numbers: one, ten,one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million. Theydidn’t have a symbol for zero. Their numerical system didn’t recognize thepositional value (units, tens,…etc). Instead, the symbol was repeated severaltimes, perhaps in a way that we might find very simple now after the invention

The role of Arab Muslim scientists in developing the final shape of our ArabicNumerals and their usages which have been wide in all corners of the globe

0987654321


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of the decimal system, the symbol of zero and the idea of positional or localvalue. Hieroglyphic language was the language of ancient Egyptians and thesymbols of numbers in that language were written as in the shapes below:

Numerical example

All Greek writers agreed unanimously that Egypt was the first country to inventall mathematical sciences. Plato mentioned that the Egyptian God,Tutankhamun, was the inventor of many arts among which were arithmetic,trigonometry and astronomy. Aristotle said that Egypt was the birth place ofmathematics, because the priests’ class had ample spare time which allowedthem to study the science of mathematics. Herodotus also concluded thattrigonometry started in Egypt and then it was transferred to Greece. The firstreferral authoritative source on mathematics was the ‘Egyptian Mathematicalpapyrus’ which is also called ‘The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus’ in the west andknown in Arabic as Qurtas Ahis. This was discovered by Alexander Henry Rhindin 1858 and translated by Eisenlohr in 1877 and edited by Eric Peet in 1923. Thisbook was from the era of the second dynasty (1801 / 1849 B.C.). Birch believesthat the information in the book goes back to 3400 B.C. The author called it‘Instructions for Knowing All Things Available’.

The book has five chapters and 87 mathematical problems:

30 Arabic Numerals

1 10 100 1000

10.000 100.000 1000.000

1.246.323


31

• First chapter: Counting and number writing• Second Chapter: The Four Rules• Third Chapter: Decimals• Fourth Chapter: Square, root square, problem solving of the first degree, andthe series.• Fifth Chapter: Engineering

2- Numbers in Mesopotamia (The Land between Two Rivers)

Old stamps were found in miscellaneous places which indicate the existence oftrade relations between the Sumerians, the most ancient among the people ofMesopotamia, and both Egypt and India. Many sheets of mud were also foundwith Sumerian writings on them. This reveals that there was an active trademovement where there were contracts and witnesses to those contracts, as well asdocuments that reveal the methods of taking loans and interests on those loans,which were between 25% and 33% per year. It seems that the Sumerians have takenthe sciences of arithmetic from the ancient Egyptians, but the opposite is probablytrue as well. However the Sumerians were able to invent the numbers in 3700 B.C.in Tel Harmal in Iraq. What we have found is a text that was left by a person withthe name of Ashoor Panipal in which he said he learnt how to find commondenominators and how to perform arithmetical operations. There is another textunder the title ‘Scientific Matters’ which talks about the methods of teachingmathematics in schools and times tables.

The Babylonians came after the Sumerians and inherited from them theknowledge of numbers around 2400 B.C. and then the Assyrians cameafterwards. The peoples of Mesopotamia attached a high importance tonumbers. They were able to set many admirable arithmetic rules. They alsowrote numbers of pottery disks using sharp machines in a horizontal linefrom right to left. They also used signs which refer to subtraction, forexample, the number 19 was written 20 minus one. The Romans did the samething afterwards.

The symbols they used were known as ‘cuneiform writing’ as the symbol fornumber one was like a ‘standing nail’ that is repeated between numbers ‘one’and ‘nine’. The symbol for number ‘ten’ was like this shape ‘ ’, whilenumber ‘eleven’ was written as number ‘ten’, with the shape of number ‘one’(the nail shape) written to the right of it. The number ‘one hundred’ was writtenlike the shape of two lines, as in the following shape; ‘ ’ where one of thelines on the left is perpendicular and the other one on the right is horizontal.The number ‘one thousand’ was pictured as if it was ‘ten hundreds’ as in the



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following shape: ‘ ’ , and if you write the number ‘ten’ next to it, thetotal value will become ‘ten thousands’ and so on and so forth. The words fornumbers from ‘one’ to ‘five’ are the same as the words for the hand figures. Theyare as follows: 1 = Ash2 = Men3 = Ish4 = Lemu5 = Ay Away

They added the word ‘Ay’ to the first digits to mean an increase of ‘five’, so theybecame as follows:6 = Yash or (Ay Ash)7 = Ay Men8 = Ayshu (Ay Shu9 = Almu or ( Ay Mu)

Number ‘ten’ was referred to as (Aw), while ‘twenty’, the double of ten, was‘Nesh’. From ‘ten’ and its structures, came the following numbers:30 = Aw Shu (which means three tens)40 = Nesh Men (two times twenty) 50 = Ninu ( nini Aw) or ( 2 X 20 + 10)

This way the Sumerians, and those who came after them, developed the decimalsystem and invented the Sixtieth System and they used it as a numerical unitwhen they saw that the circle’s perimeter was divisible to six equal chords, eachone is equal to half of circle’s diameter. They discovered this after they noticedthat the shape of a bee cell was hexagonal. They also noticed that the circle was divided into six triangles, all have equalsides, where angles were measured in degrees and every angle was 60 degrees.This division of the circle into angles coincided with the division of the yearin an astonishing coincident: 360 days = 6 X 60.

Source: www.alargam.com

3 - Numbers in China

The Chinese were the first to put the local value for a digit, or what is calleddigital place, and they paved the way for the Indians to invent the IndianNumerals which we use now. Let us now explain the shapes of the Chinesenumerals:

32 Arabic Numerals


33

The Chinese system of numeric symbols is made of the symbols used in theChinese language for writing numbers. These symbols represent numbers fromzero to nine, and there are other symbols which represent bigger numbers such astens, hundreds and thousands and so on. There are two types of symbols used inthe Chinese numerical system: The first is for daily use in writing, and the secondis used in commercial or financial transactions which are known in China as‘Dasia’ (see the table below). The Chinese numerical system today is based on thesame method that is used in forming words which is indicative of numbers in theEnglish language.


Traditional (used inHong Kong and Taiwan)

Simplified (used inMainland China)

Official Traditional-Dasia(used in Hong Kong andTaiwan)

Official Simplified-Dasia(used in MainlandChina)


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Arabic Numerals were first introduced to China during the reign of the MingDynasty (1368 – 1644). During the reign of the King Dynasty (1644 - 1912),the system of Chinese numeric symbols was replaced with Arabic Numerals inmathematical writings. Children in China today learn Chinese numericsymbols through Chinese language lessons. Arabic numerals are used in allmathematical studies.

It is worth mentioning that the system of traditional Chinese numericalsymbols is the same system that is used in Japan and Korea. It is used in thevertical texts in these countries, while Arabic numerals are used in horizontaltexts and in mathematical writings which are more common. Sometimes, thesystem of traditional Chinese numerical symbols is used alongside the ArabicNumerals on the same page. The Chinese people use Chinese numerals in thesame way the Western cultures use the Roman numerals i.e. for official useand also for historical and artistic reasons. From an artistic point of view, theChinese numerals do have a beautiful calligraphy.

4 - The Greek Numerical System

There is no doubt that the Greeks played an outstanding role in the progressof the material civilization, but we must know that they benefited a lot fromthe civilizations which preceded them, such as the Sumerian, Assyrian,Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, and Indian. They also benefited fromPhoenicians who used numerical letters in the first millennium before Christ.The Greeks learned writing from Phoenicians, as they didn’t know it beforethat time, and they used the Phoenician letters in their writing for a longtime. They also used the letters to express numerical values, i.e. using lettersinstead of numbers, until their language changed by the passage of timewhich had also led to a change in numbers.

The Greeks and the Romans used the decimal system of counting, and they alsowrote their numbers from left to right. There is some similarity between theGreek and Roman numerals. Examine the table below:

The shapes of Greek numbers (to be entered into the first row of the table)

Their numerical value (to be entered into the second row)

34 Arabic Numerals

GCT°μÉ∫ G’CQbÉΩ Yæó G’EZôj≥

Gd≤«ªá Gd©óOjá d¡É50000 10000 5000 1000 500 100 50 10 5 1

IHHXXMM


35

We can see that in the ‘five’ category, with the exception of ‘five’ itself, whichare ‘50, 500, 5000, 50000’, the ‘five’ was combined with ‘ten’, the ‘five’ withthe ‘hundred’, the ‘five’ with the ‘thousand’, and the ‘five’ with the ‘tenthousand’ respectively.

The Ionists, who were members of the ‘Ion’ Greek tribe, used their letters toexpress numbers, and they distinguished between a letter and a number byputting a sign above the number.

The Ptolemaic dynasty, or the Egyptian Greeks, knew ‘zero’ and they pictured itlike this shape ‘O'. They must have acquired it through the Sixtieth System fromthe Babylonians (Dr Albert Dietrich in his article ‘The Role of the Arabs in theDevelopment of Natural Sciences’ – ‘The Greeks learned a lot of information inthe sciences of mathematics, astronomy and medicine, from the Egyptians andBabylonians’). Or, they had learned the zero from the Indians, or perhaps theyhad invented it.

The Greeks (and also the Arabs and the Hebraic) used their alphabeticalletters to represent numbers. To explain the Greek system clearly, we will usethe letters alpha α , beta β , iota ι , and kappa κ , which represent thenumbers ‘one’, ‘two’ … ‘ten’, ‘twenty’ respectively. While ιβ refers to ‘ten andtwo’ or 12, it is not possible to exchange them as in the case of the currentsymbols. We can now change the number 12 to mean 21 to refer to thenumber ‘twenty one’ by using the two digits (1 and 2) interchangeably. In theGreek system, the number ‘twenty one’ is represented by the symbol κα.Because the Greeks didn’t work out the idea of positional or local value, theyhad to use all twenty four alphabetical letters, in addition to three othersymbols, to write the basic numbers. They are Γ (gamma) to representnumber ‘five’, H (ita) to represent ‘100’, X ,(khi) to represent 1000. Thesenumbers are repeated when writing any other number using the method of‘assembly’ as the ancient Egyptians did. As time went by, the Greeks found amethod that allowed them to abbreviate symbols. This is called‘multiplication method’ for writing numbers. For example, ‘H’ means ‘fivehundreds’. It is noticeable that this method is not used unless for theexpression of a number that is the product of multiplication by ‘five’.Examine the table below:


02 numbers:Layout 1 5/19/09 7:55 AM Page 35

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One of God’s blessings to the Greeks is that they made commercial contactswith ancient nations, which enabled them to learn the philosophy of thesenations as well as their arts and myths. When trade between them and theEgyptians was active during the seventh century B.C. they were exposed to theknowledge of Egyptian priests. This way Egyptian thoughts were transferredoverseas into the land of the Greeks.

36 Arabic Numerals

Name of Letter Small Letter Capital LetterAlpaBetagammadeltaepsilonzetaetathetaiotakappalambdaMuNuxiOmicronrhopisigmatauupsilonphichipsiomega

αβγδεζηθικλμνξορπστυϕχψω

ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΡΠΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ


Their method of writing numbers was similar to that of ancient Egyptians. Theythen used alphabetical letters to express numbers – that’s why their arithmeticwas so complicated. Below is the shape of numbers that the Greeks used:

(The shape of numbers the Greeks used is similar to the method used by ancient Egyptians)

5 - Roman Numerical System

The Roman numerical system was influenced by the idea of ‘local value’ – as we willsee – and it is thought that the basis for the Roman numerical system was countingby fingers. What led to this belief is that the word for finger in Latin is jigitus, aderivative of which is now used to describe any of their numerical symbols, whichis the word digit. The Romans wrote the numbers from one to four as follows:

As for the symbol for number five, it was written like this V and this may representthe gap between the thumb and the rest of the fingers as in the shape below:

37


I H X M

1 10 100 1000 10000

H X

5 50 500 5000

V

5

IIII

4

III

3

II

2

1

1


The local value was formed by them while it was closely connected to thissymbol, and in order to avoid writing the number ‘1’ four times they wrote ‘1’to the left of ‘V’ and the same idea was applied to other symbols. It had becomeclear ever since that when a symbol is written to the left of another symbolwhose value is higher, then the number refers to the difference between the twosymbols. When it is written to the right of it, then the new number refers to thesum of the two symbols. On this basis, the numbers 6, 7, and 8 were expressed,as in the illustrative shape below:

To express the digit ‘9’, the symbol ‘1’ is written on the left of the symbol for thedigit ‘ten’ which is ‘X’, the shape of which may have been taken from theposition of the two hands crossed. Number ‘9’ is written as such: ‘1X’, whilenumber ‘10’ is written as ‘X’, then the number ‘11’ which is referred to by thesymbol ‘X1’ where the symbol expressing number ‘1’ is written to the right ofthe symbol of number ‘10’ so that both will refer to the sum of both numbers,and so on. On this basis, the first Roman numerals were as follows:

This method is followed until you reach the number ‘twenty’ which is expressedas ‘XX’ then ‘thirty’ which is expressed as ‘XXX’.

In order to avoid the repetition of a digit four times to express ‘40’ as (XXXX),the symbol ‘L’ was adopted to express number fifty. It is thought that it is thebottom half of the letter C which refers to the number ‘hundred’ and it is the

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38 Arabic Numerals

III

3

II

2

1

1

V

5

V

5

V

5

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

X XI XII XIII XIV

10 11 12 13 14

The first Roman Numerals

Their counterparts inmodern numbers

The First Roman Numbers

Their counterparts inmodern numbers


39


first letter of the word ‘Centum’ (or hundred) in Latin. Therefore, the number40 is written like this ‘XL’ while the symbol ‘LX’ refers to number sixty. Also, thesymbol ‘XC’ refers to number ‘90’ while ‘CX’ refers to ‘hundred and ten’ or(110). Then, the letter M was used to refer to the number ‘one thousand’ (1000),and this is probably because it is the first letter of the Latin word ‘Mille’ whichmeans one thousand (1000). Before that, the number ‘one thousand’ wasexpressed by the Greek letter phi Φ, then it was written in a simple form like this‘I’, and this was altered again to ‘M’ to express the number 1000. As for thenumber 500, it was expressed by the symbol and this, as you can see, is theright part of the Greek letter pi (I) in its simple form. Then the symbol whichrefers to 500 altered to the letter D. The following table shows briefly the basicsymbols of the Roman numerical system.

On this basis, the Latin number ‘MXDVIII’ refers to the number 1408 inmodern numerical system, and the number ‘MMCCCXXLV’ refers to 2335, andthe year ‘1999’ is expressed like this: MCMXCIX, and so on.

Sources: www.alargam.com

6 - Indian Numbers

There is a group of old Indian numbers called ‘Popular Karoshti’ and this beganin the third century B.C. and then it took certain clear shapes in two centuries,but it is not based on a hierarchical idea. Smith and Karpinski (David EugeneSmith and Louis Charles Karpinski) found a similarity between these shapesand the Nabati letters, but they ruled out that the Karoshti shapes were theorigin of the Indian numbers which in the end reached the Arabs and theEuropeans. Below are some of these shapes:

M D C L X V I

1000 500 100 50 10 5 1


As for the other group that was referred to by Smith and Karpinski, it is theBrahmi group of numbers and they regarded it as the origin from which theDevanagari alphabet was derived.

(Dr Sa’eedan said in his study: (The Arithmetic Science Among The AncientArabs) on page 180, quoting Smith and Karpinski:

‘The pictures of numbers seem to have come from the pictures of Devanagarialphabet, which form the origin of Sanskrit alphabet, which is, in its part, usedto write the Brahmi language’. Dr Bukhari also mentioned in his book (ArabicNumerals), on page 34 that the use of the Brahmi alphabet spread widely in allparts of India during the third century B.C. (it’s A.D. in Dr Bukhari’s book) butit’s highly likely that what I said was more accurate. He reckons that thearithmetic and numbering system among the Arabs, page 80, volume 4, beganwhen Asoka unified all parts of India.

They, the Brahmi group of numbers, are the origin of the present Sanskritnumbers. But Smith and Karpinski could not confirm that they are the origin ofthe Arabic numbers.

Dr Sa’eedan continued talking about the views of Western researches duringthose stages saying ‘As for Drainger, his main concern was to study the historyof alphabets and their development. As far as the Karoshti Alphabet wasconcerned, he confirmed that it was the alphabet of the common people whoused it in their daily life; therefore, we should not wait to see it on manuscriptsand religious writings. He also confirmed that it used to start from right to leftuntil at a later time, the direction of writing was reversed. The Karoshti alphabetwas used in eastern Afghanistan and southern Punjab. Drainger thinks it wasderived from the Aramaic letters… As for the Brahmi Alphabet, he, Drainger,thinks it’s likely that it was derived from the Aramaic Alphabet ’.

Dr Bukhari showed some examples of ancient Brahmi numbers as shownbelow:

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41


He later showed the shapes of the developed Brahmi numbers, which were usedsince the twelfth century A.D. They are as follows:

He then tried to show the sets of shapes of the Nijari numbers (from theregion of Nijari) according to the stages of their development, adding that theolder types of these numbers are similar to Brahmi Numbers. He showedthem as follows:

Dr Abdussattar Muhammed Faidh showed two sets of shapes for Indiannumbers, and they looked like the shapes below:


As for the shapes of Indian numbers as mentioned by the oldest Arabic books –that reached us – in the Indian Arithmetic the first Arabic book in arithmeticwas that of Muhammed Bin Musa Al Khawarizmi, and it is now missing,although many of the Latin manuscripts quoted it and took some excerpts fromit. But the numbers and arithmetic operations within those Latin letters, whichwere presumed to have been done by Al Khawarizmi, are very different to whatwas known among the Arabs – in the East and West – whether they werenumbers or the way of calculation. Source: ‘The Story of Numbers andNumbering’, pages 68-69, and the study entitled ‘The Science of ArithmeticAmong the Arabs’, pages 181-182.

Let me now explain some more facts through what the following books havesaid about numbers:

In the book ‘Al Fusool Fi Al Hissab Al Hindi’ or ‘Chapters in Indian Arithmetic’by Abi Al Hassan Ahmed Bin Ibrahim Al Iqleedsi which was the first to reachus from those books, and the author wrote it in Damascus in the year 341 Hijra,we find:

The First section: In the knowledge of the Nine Letters and the Ranks: The firstthing that must be learnt of that by anyone who began learning this science islearning the nine letters, and these are as follows:

Source: www.alargam.com

The Use of Numbers Among the Arab Muslims

The interest Muslims showed in mathematics and other different sciences wasmostly due to the teachings of Islam. These teachings encouraged, and still do,learning in all its forms and levels. The Quraan says ‘Seeking Knowledge is a dutyon every Muslim man and woman’. While the Prophet Muhammed said “SeekKnowledge even if it was in China”, signifying the importance of knowledge andextent to which people should go in acquiring it. Also, the Holy Quraan has urgedpeople to look at the skies and what they contain, and to the earth and what is onit. Personal status issues also required Muslims to look into many things such asinheritance, commercial transactions, contracts and their expiry dates, knowledgeof calendars, arithmetic and calculus. Worship also required knowing the times ofprayers, identifying the direction of Mecca (the Ka’aba) and knowing the time

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43


when the crescent appears signalling the start of Ramadan and the time of Hajj(pilgrimage to Mecca) etc. which required Muslims to follow the movements ofthe sun and the moon. All this made the Muslims search for knowledge andscience, especially astronomy which requires knowledge of all different forms ofmathematics, from calculus to trigonometry to algebra, and all that is related tothe sciences of nature and metaphysics.

How did Arabs make contacts with other civilizations?

The Arabs made contacts with the Greeks via the ancient Syrians in Asia Minor.Through them they made contacts with the Christian Greeks, and also throughtravels and tours. The caliphs also brought Greek scientists who translated Greekknowledge and science into the Arabic language. The Arabs also made contactswith the Persians and Indians, and they were closely associated with them. Thisway the Arab’s knowledge, culture and civilization became deep and multidimensional. During the reign of Caliph Othman Bin Affan, the Arabs were incontact with the Indians, and also during the conquest of Sind by Hajjaj BinYousif Ath-Thiqafi in AD 710. and the conquest of Kabul and Kashmir by CaliphAbu Ja’afar Al Mansour in the year AD 760.

Researchers believe that the Arab’s influence on humanity is huge for thefollowing reasons:

1- The Arabs were faithful and honest keepers of Greek scientific treasures.They kept them intact and prosperous (by advancing them), and they savedthem from the Romans.

2- They were responsible for spreading the Indian scientific treasures whichprospered in the east while the Greek sciences prospered in the west.

3- They made the connection between the Greek and Indian sciences and builton both of them to create new coherent sets of ideas, and they handed all thisknowledge, pure and intact, to westerners when they woke up from theirdormancy and ‘took off the jacket’ of apathy. They, westerners, marched intoAndalusia to study at the universities of Seville, Cordoba and Granada whichwere established by the Arabs. They also went to other places in search ofknowledge and science, and learned the Arabic language in order to studydeveloped sciences and other types of knowledge at Arabic universities. Thosewestern students, for their part, transferred what they had learned from theArabs into Latin.


4- The Arabs added to the knowledge and sciences that they received fromothers, more radiant scientific conquests and new valuable discoveries;although these were wrongly attributed to others and some thought they werediscovered afterwards.

What is the story of Arabic Numerals?

There is no doubt that the Arab Muslims, as is the case with all other peopleswithin civilizations, influenced others and were influenced by others. But it’s amistake for some people to believe that the Arabic Numerals are Indian, or the zero(0), or cipher, is not Arabic, or that Arabic Numerals should be written like this:

This is because scientific matters have been confused, to a great extent, and theyhave become so ambiguous to so many people. The story began when the Arabsgot to know the different systems of numbering that were used by other peopleswhom they conquered and with whom they established friendships. Theypreferred the Indian system, even though the Indians had many shapes fornumbers, but the Arabs selected what they thought proper and they decided tohave two different ways of writing the numbers:

1- The Eastern or Oriental Way, and this was used by the Baghdad Arabs, andit developed briefly until the numbers shown below became common in Egypt,Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and all Arab countries:

2- The Western Way, and this was used by the Arabs of the Andalus (Andalusiain Spain) and it developed somewhat until the use of the numbers shown belowbecame common in the Arab West: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

The Western World took the Arab West’s method of writing the numbersthrough Andalusia but they reversed the chronology so that it conformed to theway they wrote their words.

The Western Arabs (North Africans) still write the numbers in the same waytheir ancestors did. It should not be thought by anyone that they are using theFrancophone numerals; on the contrary, the westerners (Europeans) are theones who are writing their numbers according to the Arab Westerners’ (NorthAfricans) way. The West still calls these numerals (Arabic Numerals).

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44 Arabic Numerals

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What is the story of the (zero) for the Muslims?

Many researchers deny that the number ‘zero’ was an Indian concept; whileothers insist it was an Arabic one. The truth is that the value of the ‘zero’ andother numbers is not actually in the shapes of the numbers but in the acquiredvalue. We can now, through the multiple use of the ‘zero’, express the highestvalue numbers as well as the lowest value numbers. It suffices that we increasethe number of ‘zeros’ on the right of the fraction to make it smaller and smaller.

Some researchers believe that the shape of the ‘zero’ that was used by theIndians was like a circle with a dot in the middle, such as this one: i.e. it wasan empty space. And this use came at later times. But the Eastern Arabs took upthe ‘dot’ and left the circle out, while the Western Arabs, took up the circle andleft the dot out.

Some other researchers believe that Muslim mathematicians knew the Greekshape of the ‘zero’ which is a circle with a line on the top. Some calligrapherslinked the line at the top to the circle in their writings.

On this basis, the shape of the zero in the Greek alphabet is basically the sameas the Indian one, especially if we know that the Indian tradition of writingnumbers is based on drawing a line above the digit. In spite of all this, and as Isaid at the beginning regarding the ‘zero’, the Arabs were the ones who definedboth the value and use of the ‘zero’. As for its shape, it is a mere transfer fromone civilization to another, and before that, it was one choice among manyother possible choices, and it was a development of a concept to reach its finalshape, until the Arabs had their own numbers, whether they were writtenaccording to western or eastern way.

A Study Reveals the Secret of Arabic Numerals

We have received from Mr Abdul Hay Ad-Dakali from Morocco an address ofa site for numbers where there is a study of numbers that reveals the secrets ofthe Arabic Numerals which we would like to show to you below:

In this table, the alphabet letter takes the value of the number opposite to it.

Table of Sentence Calculations

The Arabs used the arithmetic calculations of sentences from the Jahili era (theperiod that preceded Islam) to the early years of the Abbasid era (Source: ArabInternational Encyclopaedia). Sentence calculations were used mostly forwriting down events.


If we add up the values of letters with two arithmetic aims, as below, we will get176: 2 + 1 + 60 + 8 + 10 + 80 + 4 + 5 + 6

The year 176, according to the Hijri calendar, was in the period when Idrees theFirst ruled Morocco from 172 until 177 Hijri, and in the period where HaroonAr Rasheed ruled the Arab East, from 170 until 193 Hijri.

In the year 176 Hijri, the Kufi calligraphy was in vogue. This name is used forall the calligraphies which tend to have squares and trigonometric shapes. Theshape below is a Kufi calligraphy

When we decipher this sentence into letters we will get the following:

Chapter 2

46 Arabic Numerals

GC 1∑ 02

Ü 2∫ 03

ê 3Ω 04

O 4¿ 05

√ 5S¢ 06

h 6´ 07

R 7± 08

ì 8U¢ 09

• 9¥ 001

… 01Q 002

T¢ 003ä 004

ç 005ñ 006

P 007V¢ 008

® 009Æ 0001

opposingnumber

Alphabeticletter

opposingnumber

Alphabeticletter


47


This means the following:

And if the letter (waw= ) and the voul (sukoon= ) were left as they are, andif we move the letters (ha’a= ), (fa’a= ), (ya’a= ), (ha’a= ), (seen= ),(alif= ) and (ba’a= ), and if we turned over the letter (dal = ), we will get theArabic Numerals:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

All the numbers have remained as they are today except the number 2. If weturned it upside down, we will get the letter (ha’a = ) which is the sixth letter ofthe Arabic alphabet.

hg` ± … ì S¢

GC Ü O

r

ì


Chapter Three

Globalization and Numbers


51

1- In Economics: Local and international economy depends on numbers and50% of the business language in all nations depends on numbers, while the restis just explanation of these numbers and they are explanations and expressionswith unified known meanings.

2 - In Mathematics: Mathematics depends on numbers by no less than 70%while letters used in mathematics represent only 15%, while the remainder is forsigns such as plus, minus, equal, percentage etc… (+ , - ,= , %).

3- Electronics and the sciences of communication also depend totally onnumbers.

4- Chemistry and other sciences such as civil registers and others dependon numbers.

5- Most countries of the world, with the exception of countries of the ArabOrient, use the Arabic Numerals which we called in this book Our ArabicNumerals since they have become the common language of numbers among thenations using them.

6- The Number ‘zero’ which in fact constitutes the dynamic force for allnumbers, but is actually a cause for making many mistakes in the orientalnumbers as it is often confused with dots and other similar writing symbols.Also, when it disappears or doesn’t come out clearly in writings or printings, itcauses problems and it is actually a flaw in our oriental numbers.

7- Most civilized writings are bound to depend on using numbers at differentrates. The only places where numbers are not widely used are literal andhistorical books and articles and some novels.

8- If our nation wishes to enter globalization and introduce its heritage andcivilization to the world, it must change its current oriental numerals to ourArabic Numerals. This way, the language of communication between nationswill be easier by 50%. This will also facilitate the tasks of researchers andreaders, and consequently the benefit in the fields of creativity in art andproduction will be increased by 50%.

Finally, every negative aspect in our oriental numbers, from their shapes to theisolation they impose on their users, from the march of civilization of numbers,will be positive when change into our Arabic Numerals is effected.

Globalization and Numbers

03 numbers:Layout 1 5/19/09 8:00 AM Page 51

Chapter Four

The Leaders who made the change anddeveloped civilizations across history


55

Nations do not rise from their mistakes or decline except through greatscientific, technological and cultural revolutions that their sons and daughtersachieve and spread or their leaders carry out and implement. Let us review whathas been happening across the ages and in our current time:

1- If we look closely at the subject of number development in this book, we willfind that across history there is someone who has thought and excelled andleaders who have implemented the innovations of individuals. They are theones who started the revolutionary changes in their civilizations.

2- The study in this book reveals some aspects of number development and itscontribution to modern technological sciences. If it was not for thedevelopment of numbers, in both shape and meaning, and their contribution towhat humanity has reached, we would not have attained this great honour todaywhere numbers are referred to as Arabic Numerals. The numbers are the bestammunition and best Islamic treasures that the Muslims bequeathed after theywere defeated in Europe. Is it not time to reclaim these treasures and benefitfrom them? Especially after Arabic numbers have become the magic keys tomodern technological sciences in the form that is prevalent today worldwide?

3- As the Holy Quraanic verse (We taught man what he didn’t know; SooratAl Alaq, verse number 5) says, knowledge comes from God, but the will towork comes from us human beings. All holy verses have urged people to dogood deeds as the holy Quraanic verse says (Good deeds lasts on earth…etc.Surat Ar Ra’ad, verse number 177).

4- I saw a film on the life of Hitler that was shown in Germany in the nineteenfifties after World War 2. It was shown in every city at the time in more thanthree cinemas. The turnout was large, especially among the youth. The film wasabout Hitler’s life since his appearance on the political stage, and most of thefootage was from real events that were shot during his lifetime, while otherswere shot for the sake of chronological coherence of the story in the film. Mostparts of the film were focused on the technical and development revolutionsthat took place in his time. It also showed the war that he fought which affectedeverything except the brains which remained in force to enlighten Germany andset it again at the forefront of other nations. The conclusion of the film was thatif Hitler hadn’t entered politics, he would have probably been the greatest andmost multi- talented engineer humanity had ever witnessed.

There is no surprise there as Bismarck preceded him in unifying Germany,while Goethe also preceded him by unifying the language and setting thegrammar for it.

The Leaders who made the change and developed civilizations across history


Chapter 4

Today, as I am still perplexed (which I have been for many months before Ibegan writing this book) whose idea has been on my mind for many years, therewas a news story circulating in the news bulletins. It is about a decree issued inGermany, for more than a year, that sets new grammar for writing and dictationfor more than two hundred common German words. This meant that the newgrammar rules would alter the letters used in the composition of these words tomake them easier to learn or remember. German linguists, in this day and age,are alert even to the rules of their language which is supposed to be the symbolof their glories and pride. The political leaders of the country have expressedtheir highest appreciation for the linguists on their move and stated theirwillingness to adopt these grammar changes. The news story was about thosepeople who were opposing the introduction of the new grammar changes. Theopposition was mostly from publishing houses which will be affected becausetheir publications of school text books and other stationery wouldn’t be sold ifthe changes were adopted. They had a different view regarding education. Iwould like to show the readers what one newspaper carried regarding this issue:

Spelling and reading grammar in the German language:

The language that has no speakers or writers will head towards extinction

No sooner had the application of the new rules began than they were confrontedwith sharp criticism in all parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Theserules were intended to make the use of the language easier. Yet, Germanspeakers described them as ‘confusing’ and ‘silly’.

The German News Agency said that this change affects 212 spelling rules and 52other rules on the place of the ‘comma’ and this led to the reduction of the spellingrules to 112 and comma rules to just 9 in a language that is heavily restricted byhundreds of other rules which are complicated and strange in their structures.

The defenders of the new system say it will make education easier and it willhelp in the documentation process in offices and government administrations.

The new system will allow, during a transitional period that will last till 2005, theuse of the new and old rules together. Those opposing the change, who are mostlyolder people, can continue to use what is politely called ‘the traditional writing’.

Gabriel Beihler, who presided over a meeting in Vienna for the ministers ofcultures of German speaking countries in 1996 during which they agreed on thenew rules, called upon the media and writers to cooperate in implementing anddeveloping the new grammar rules and guidelines.

56 Arabic Numerals


57

On the other hand, the opponents of the change didn’t spare any effort tocondemn the new grammar rules which they said were not logical nor smooth.In addition, they said the new rules will deprive the German language of its richlegacy. Gabriel Rota, the spokesman for the opponents of the new measure,called on the authorities to ban the new grammar rules and ignore themcompletely in the coming months on the basis that ‘the language that doesn’tfind users to write in it will head towards extinction.

Millions of German Deutsche Marks were spent on new text books based on theamended grammar and the Constitutional Court in Germany rejected an appeal toban the new rules from taking effect on the grounds that they violate basic freedoms.

The appeal that the court looked at, which was lodged by a couple from thenorthern city of Lübeck, said the changes represent an infringement of theirlegal rights in the direction of teaching their children who were 9 years old.

While in the state of Schlezwich Hew Lischtein in the far north of Germany, areferendum was held on 27th September, the same day of the general election inthe whole country, on whether to implement the new rules in the state or not.

Hostile feelings to the linguistic reforms were at their highest among students,experts and parents who were demanding of their local government to keepSchlezwich Hew Lischtein the odd state separate from all German states. Theywanted it to continue to work according to the ‘authentic’ grammar system ofthe German language.

The prime motive for the reforms was that the German language, in itscomposition when the reforms were introduced, was based on hundreds ofgrammar rules which do not follow specific logic or general rules and this madememorizing these rules or learning them very difficult. This means that learningthe language by heart was a must for German children as well as for those whowanted to learn the language among non- Germans.

The collapse of the Berlin wall represented a huge shock to the world. No soonerhad the unity between the two German states been announced, than thegovernment of Federal Germany employed all its economic powers to cementthe unity in spite of the high cost to the western part of the country and theeconomic suffering that was inflicted on its people, and in spite of thedifferences that accumulated in abilities and ethics between the people of thetwo former German states.

Germany didn’t stop at internal revolutionary reforms in the fields of scienceand economics, but it employed its economic power and its former currency

The Leaders who made the change and developed civilizations across history


Chapter 4

(the Deutsche Mark) in the service of the unification of European countries.The most important achievement of the European unity is the ‘Euro’, and notwo persons would disagree that the German Mark and German economy werethe catalysts behind the achievement of the ‘Euro’. In addition to the economiccosts, what sorts of scientific and technical knowledge, technologies,organization, promotion, and naturalization that the Euro required to replace25 different currencies, in the literal sense of the word differentiate, in form,content, application and value? They must have been very huge. How did thischange to the European currencies facilitate life for the people of the ‘Euro’region and help them improve their life, present and future? Isn’t the Euro aneconomic and civilizational unifying revolution that transformed the citizens ofthese countries from one world to another? Yes, that was the achievement ofleaders who were chosen by their people and they were indeed the right choice.

5- Although I do not approve of the change that Mutafa Kamal Ataturk made(when he took over the rule in Turkey after the collapse of the Ottomanempire), in replacing the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet in the Turkishlanguage, this has in fact stripped the Turkish people of their identity andresulted in Turkish generations losing contact with their civilization andsciences. In that change, they lost what distinguished them from other nations.I say, despite my disapproval of this step, that I must acknowledge it was a boldstep to replace the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet as a means to reviveTurkish fortunes and stamp out decay and backwardness in Turkey which weredue to the long traditional rule of the successive Ottoman caliphs.

6- In spite of what is known about the British people and their conservative policiesit is their lack of enthusiasm for change as well as their coolness that distinguishesthem from other people. An example of this is their official holidays which arealways moved to a Monday whenever they fall during the week. They are calledBank Holidays. Ordinary people do not really know the occasions of these holidaysexcept for Christmas and New Year as these two holidays are celebrated on theexact date that they fall. I say, in spite of this conservatism, many rules and basis formeasurements of length and weight have been changed. The currency has alsobeen changed in 1971 from shillings and guineas (the shilling was based on 12whereas the decimal currency is based on 10). Also, measurements of length havebeen changed from ‘foot’, ‘yard’ and ‘mile’, to metric measurements. Weightmeasurements have also been changed form ‘ounce’ and ‘pound’ to decimalmeasurements which are gram and kilogram. Although these changes were notsudden the change went quietly. The difference between the German way ofchanging things and the British way is that the former is speedy in implementationand revolutionary in nature while the latter is quiet and patient. But the importantpoint for both is that they reached the set targets.

58 Arabic Numerals


Chapter Five

The Development of Our Arabic Numbers in the Era of Computers


61

At a time when the Arab West, such as the countries of Morocco, Tunisia, andAlgeria, use the global Arabic Numerals, and they were the ones who introducedthem to Europe with the advent of Islam into Andalusia, history didn’t report tous that Western Arab countries have ever used oriental numbers.

As a result of that, there are two types of numbers in our Arabic writings today andthey are different in form. This phenomenon has even included the numbering ofthe holy Quraanic verses where there are the global Arabic Numerals in the WesternArab countries and the oriental numerals used in the eastern Arab countries.

When the founders of ‘Al Diwan for Computer Programmes’ started producingcomputer programmes in Arabic, there were only three brilliant Iraqi young men.Naturally, they used oriental Arabic numbers in their programmes, but after severalyears these programmes were developed and this coincided with the entry of othercompanies and establishments into the programme development business, incooperation with major companies such as Microsoft, Apple and others.

The programmes began to take different dimensions to meet the requirements ofnations and their languages. As far as our Arabic Numerals are concerned, twodifferent Arabic programmes were developed, one had the oriental numbers andthe other had the global Arabic Numerals. At last, programme developersmanaged to have both types of numerals in use where users can move from onetype to another or vice versa with outstanding ease, by just clicking on a numberof icons to get to the desired type, as is the case with choosing the font, type orshape of alphabetic letters which can be changed according to demand.

1- The appearance of the beginning of change in our Arabic numbers

Some Arabic TV stations have undertaken to use our Arabic numbers insteadof oriental numerals on their screens. But this didn’t take place on an organizedstrategic or systematic basis. Sometimes you see data in oriental numerals, othertimes in our Arabic Numerals on the same TV screen. This means the wind ofchange in numbers has already started blowing, albeit in a disorganized way.

2- Media

Local Arab media are still using the numerical system that is used in theircountry of origin. As for other international Arab media such as Al Sharq AlAwsat, Al Hayat and Al Quds newspapers and others which are publishedoutside Arab countries, they have started using our Arabic Numerals instead oforiental numbers which are used by their own countries.



Chapter 5

3- Books and Magazines

As far as I know, there has been no move in changing the type of numbers usedin books and magazines as has been happening in other media such asnewspapers. Probably there are some exceptions in some books such as ‘AlIbadat Al Maliyya Fi Al Islam = Financial Worships in Islam’ and ‘Al Jihad AlInsani Fi Al Islam = Humanitarian Jihad in Islam’.

4- I have not heard of any signs of change in school syllabi in any country of thecountries that still use oriental numbers as education and learning is still dependenton the two types which are the oriental numbers and our Arabic Numerals.

Recommendations of This Study

Now we know that the Arabs were the people who transferred all the knowledgeand benefits of previous civilizations to humanity at large, and it was theinterests of Arabs themselves in scientific achievements of the Greeks and theIndians that had actually led to the use of the developed arithmetic system in itslast Arabic form. Therefore, I recommend the following steps:

1- We must not hold on to cosmetic reasoning and ask which system is morecorrect. The oriental numbers which are:

Or the Arab Western numbers which are: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

We must know that both types of numerals are Arabic. What is now prevalentin the world is our Arabic Numerals and they are called as such by everyone.

2- We must always remind others in our studies of the important role played bythe Arabs and the scientists of the Muslims in human civilization. We must alwaysrefer to Al Bairuni, Al Khawarizmi, Al Ya’aqoobi, and Al Iqlidis. Al Bairunifaithfully mentioned in his books that he met the Indians and found them usingmany groups of numbers and what Arabs took off them was the best they had. AlBairuni lived in AD 973-1048. But the first Arab writer who wrote about Indianarithmetic was Abu Ja’afar Muhammed Bin Musa Al Khawarizmi. He worked inthe office of the Abbasid Caliph Al Maa’moon in the period AD 813-833. Theoldest description we have known for the Indian numbers is what we find in AlYa’aqoobi’s book ‘Al Tareekh = The History’ where he ended his book on theevents of Al Iqlidis. He wrote it in Damascus in 341 Hijri (AD 952-953).

3- Two thirds of numbers in the two series, the Indian (or oriental) and ourArabic Numerals, have almost the same form or shape. This is particularly trueif we know that the development in some numbers was limited to the

62 Arabic Numerals

0987654321


63

divergence of the angle or on a reverse bend, or on a lengthening or omitting ofsome of their constituent parts as happened in the numbers: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0.

4- We must emphasize that types, the Western and Oriental numerals, areArabic after some amendments were made on the Indian shapes. This isregarded as an invention of the Arabic civilization from one point of view.Conversely, we must also emphasize the examples the Arabs set and theirpositive role and contribution to science in their use of numbers in differentarithmetic calculations and for setting a value for ‘zero’ even though it was usedby the Greeks and the Indians before them.

Finally, the time is right to reclaim Arabic Numerals for the nation

Requirements for bringing back our Arabic Numerals which are now‘immigrants’ across the world:

1- The Arab League should commission an initial study and an explanatorystatement and prepare it as a project to be given to Arab governments to be ratifiedin order to start applying the details of using our Arabic Numerals to replace theoriental numbers which are now used in most Arab countries. The change must takeplace over a period that must not exceed three years, or five years as a maximum.

2- Ministries of education, planning, information and culture in the Arab worldmust form separate committees which should give their own recommendations,after which, representatives of these committees must convene in a largecomprehensive meeting to approve the last form for the ways and means ofeffecting the change and the timetable for implementing it.

3- If this is not possible through the Arab League, every country in the Arab Orientshould start using our Arabic Numerals by way of adopting these numbers in schoolsyllabi and making their use mandatory in the media and publishing houses.

4- Let us make this change in numbers a scientific and cultural revolution, throughwhich the energies and abilities of our nations in scientific advancements areemployed to the maximum, especially in computer sciences, programming andorganization. We must open up opportunities for individuals and the private sectorso that it can play its role at work and participate in the great operation for changein numbers that have been fluctuating between two types and shapes of numbers.

(And say (unto them): Act! Allah will behold your actions, and (so will) Hismessenger and the believers, and ye will be brought back to the Knower of theInvisible and the Visible, and He will tell you what ye used to do.)- Soorat AtTawba, verse 105, Holy Quraan.God is the guarantor of all success.



64 Arabic Numerals

Sources and Footnotes

1Joy, RR: Shape and Number, London: Macmillan: Education. 1976, P.10.

Abdul Hameed Lutfi and Ahmed Abul Abbas: Tareekh Ar Riyadhiyyat (TheHistory of Mathematics) - Cairo, American University Press, 1957, page 7.

Abdul Hameed Lutfi, the previous source, page 29.

Joy, RR: Shape and Number 1P11.

Joy, RR: Shape and Number.

Joy, RR: Shape and Number.

Ibn An-Nadeem, Muhammed Bin Is-haq: AL Fihrast (The Index), Beirut, DarulMaʼarifa (Publishing House), 1978, Page: 28.

Abdulla Tuhtaah: Is-ham Ulamaʼa Al Islam fi Ar Riyadhiyyat (The Contribution ofthe Scholars of Islam in Mathematics). Aalam Al Fikir (Publishing House),(Kuwait), Volume 11, Issue 1, April-June 1980, pages: 283-312.

Abdul Hameed Lutfi, the previous source, page 24. For the use of digits andnumbers, you can also look into the following:

- Daʼerat Al Maʼarif Al Islamiyya (The Office of Islamic Knowledge), the subjectof arithmetic.

- Al Iqleedis, Abul Hassan Ahmed Bin Ibrahim, Al Fusool Fi Al Hisab Al Hindi(The Chapters in Indian Arithmetic), Page: 341 / Edited by Ahmed Saʼeedan,Amman Jordan: The Jordanian Committee for Arabization, Publishing andTranslation, 1973.

- Detreesh, Albiar,: Dawr Al Arab Fi Tatawwur Al Uloom Al Tabiʼeyya (The Roleof the Arabs in the Development of Natural Sciences) / Al Lisan Al Arabi(Rabat), Issue 2, January 1996, Page 96-105.

- The Numbersʼ Site: www.alargam.com


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